The Lion King III
by soarineaglewings
Summary: Scar is back and Simba and the old crew have to figure out a way to destroy him before it is too late, may get a bit romantic at some points, but not enough to be considered a genre
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of The Lion King, sadly it belongs to the genius of Disney…tear, tear…please don't sue me though- I love my money!

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The Lion King III  
Chapter 1 - Simba's Fear

The dawning of the day was upon the pride as the king looked out to his lands. In the distance Simba noticed two figures strangely reminiscent to Timon and Pumbaa running through the tall blades of grass. Simba smiled to himself as he watched them make their way back into the Pride Lands toward Pride Rock. He had been waiting a fortnight for them and they had finally arrived, hopefully with good news. As the shadow was lifted with the rising of the sun his queen came to him and nuzzled up the side of him. Soon after, Kiara left the pride to join her mother and father. The princess was energetic even through the early hours of the day. Soon after, Kovu managed to make his way toward the royal three. He purposely stood next to Kiara, farthest from Simba. Although he had been granted a pardon and was permitted to stay with Simba's pride, he felt as if Simba was still feeling a bit uneasy around him. Especially since Timon and Pumbaa had left.

"What are you guys looking at?" Kovu said looking across the grasslands. Then he saw them. Timon and Pumbaa back from their little, secret mission from the king. Simba had been very secretive, lately. He no longer told anyone what was going on, not even his beautiful queen, Nala. Although it was generally in Nala's nature to pry, she did not for some reason-at least not about the mission Simba had sent Timon and Pumbaa on. It was possible that she had already known the reason, but no one knew if that was true or not. Once Timon and Pumbaa reached Pride Rock, Simba made a motion as if to tell everyone else to leave. Slowly, Nala nudged Kiara and Kovu to disappear as Simba descended to meet up with the meer cat and warthog. They were given a brief and warm welcome back and then Simba jumped right into business.

"What have you two found?" said the king as he scanned the rock to make sure that they were completely isolated.

"Sire, we searched high and low in the Pride Lands and then in the Outlands and…" started Pumbaa before he was rudely interrupted by Timon:

"And, sire-it's true! Mwhaa, ha!" he cried in his characteristically loud and Timon-like voice. As soon as Simba heard this, however, his eyes went into narrow, ferocious slits and a fierce and violent roar was emitted from his mouth. The affirmative answer was exactly what Simba had feared for himself and his pride.

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Well, this is all I have so far. Sorry to leave you guys on a cliffhanger. This is my first fanfic, so I hope you guys like it. Please R&R. I'll try to update soon. Love you all!

Lauren


	2. Hakuna Matata

Disclaimer: Oh, how I hate admitting that I was not the one clever enough to invent this awesome story and that it does not belong to me-only the incredibly smart people of Disney. Heavy sigh! Oh well, what are you going to do?

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The Lion King III  
Chapter 2 Hakuna Matata

Simba sent Timon and Pumbaa for a well deserved nap and then a day of relaxation with Kiara and Kovu. He paced around for several minutes and snarled a little more. After Timon, Pumbaa, Kiara, and Kovu left, Nala joined her husband as he walked back and forth.

"Honey? What's wrong?" she said gently as Simba barely acknowledged her. "Let's go for a walk, okay? It'll be good for you." Slowly Simba followed his queen. They walked all through the Pride Lands as Nala followed dutifully. Unlike her usual self, she did not pester Simba as they walked. She could see that he was still deep in thought. As they were walking she remembered a particular instance when she and Simba were just little cubs. The flashback of Simba's great idea to visit an elephant graveyard was too much for her to keep all to herself. She knew that Simba was still deep in thought and as the king he was probably worrying about the safety of his pride, but she just hated seeing him so tense.

Nala quickly ran at Simba and pounced on top of him, his back pinned to the grass. "Pinned ya!" she said to his bewildered face that was then quickly overcome with realization of what Nala was doing. Pushing her off of him and wanting to play along he got back up and ran after her forgetting about his problems. The two of them pranced along a bit longer until Nala managed to land once more on top of him. "Pinned ya again!" she said with even more emphasis. The two lions burst into laughter as they both got up and nuzzled one another. They walked side by side, much as in love as the day they were married.

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Meanwhile, Kiara and Kovu were giving Timon and Pumbaa trouble of their own. Simba's idea of giving the dynamic duo a nice, _relaxing_ day with his daughter and possible, future son-in-law was obviously not even close to theirs. Although it was true that the foursome had went to Upendi, Kiara and Kovu would not give up trying to figure out what Simba had sent them to do. Not surprisingly, Timon and Pumbaa were trying their best to distract the two lions from their own mission.

"We were searching for new grub spots. See kid," Timon started talking to Nala as if she were still a cub, smaller than Timon. "Your dad, he's got this crazy idea that you lions should start eating like us!" he said as Pumbaa started to chant: "Grubs, grubs, grubs, grubs. Grubs, grubs, grubs, grubs. Charge!"

"Whoa! Take it easy there, Pumbaa, buddy" replied Timon as he himself started to sing his own rendition of In Upendi.

"Wheeeree the meercats sing

And the Pumbaas swing

From the branches beyond the wa-ay!

Aannd the Nala says that she knows the way,

While the Kovu just wants to pla-ay! C'mon Everyone!"

He yelled as only Timon could and actually get everyone to join in- "In Upendi!" they all shouted as they pranced through the grasslands. The sun was just setting and Timon and Pumbaa wanted to look at the stars with the two restless lions. Soon enough, Kovu was no longer able to contain himself. He thought he could trick the partners in crime, but Timon and Pumbaa were on there guard, therefore, they were successfully able to avoid telling Kiara and Kovu what they had been up to.

"Aw-C'mon, Timon! You know you want to tell us." pried Kovu as Kiara worked on Pumbaa. Just as Pumbaa was about to cave in, however, Timon distracted him.

"Okay, okay-we'll tell you!" said Timon in a menacing voice.

"We will?" Pumbaa replied in his deep, gruff, warthog voice that sounded as if he truly believed Timon.

"Sure! When we're at the top of the food chain! Ha! The food chain! Get it?" he said as he cracked up at his own joke, while the other three stared blankly at him. "Ahem!" he said once he realized that his joke had flopped. "No worries-Hakuna Matata!"

Kovu, on the other hand, was not impressed by Timon's little gesture. He was getting very frustrated that he could not figure out what they had done. Without thinking he opened his mouth and let out an earsplitting roar. Turning around, Timon was about to crack another joke, but before he could, Kovu's rather large teeth were closing in around Timon. All the meercat could do was scream as he was being swallowed alive.

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A/N: Well first I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews...This chapter isn't exactly necessary, but I wanted to put it in for some drama and reminiscing...I'm working on the next chapter, so I hope I can update that soon...I hope you are enjoying it so far and please R&R since it is always nice to have some feedback. Also, I realized that any users who had not been signed in couldn't review, so I changed it so that you can if you want to. Sorry. Anyways, please R&R and hopefully I'll be updating soon.

Btw, If you are into Pirates of the Caribbean, my good friend Julia is writing a fanfic for it: her pn name is JBT and her story is titled The Young and Hopeless...I know she's been wanting some more feedback from that, so by all means you should check it out.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Mine, Mine! It's all mine! Oops! I forgot the NOT!

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The Lion King III  
Chapter 3

Once Simba and Nala got back to Pride Rock, Nala went inside, while Simba went to find Zazu. Once he found the bird they went walking through the dry lands that had become wetlands from the flood that dried out again, but now had a few puddles here and there where Mufasa and Zira had died many years ago.

"What now, sire?" asked Zazu, not meaning to pry. He had not been informed about Timon and Pumbaa's adventure, but he was aware that something was up. He did not have to know what was going on though. He trusted Simba with his life and if the king decided that Zazu did not need to know, then Zazu was fine with that. He knew that when the right time came along, Simba would tell him what was going on.

"He's not dead, Zazu. That was what Timon and Pumbaa went off to see. I had heard two of the hyenas who had been very close to Shenzi talking. I couldn't take the chance if it was true, so I sent the two of them off. They found his lair and everything. He's got a little over two dozen hyenas there and who knows how many working from the inside. There is also a pawful of lions from the Outlands who we thought had also died in the battle. I don't know what to do, Zazu. I don't know what to do."

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Just as Kovu was about to swallow, Pumbaa rammed himself into the lion's side, saving his meerkat friend. Kovu was forced to let out an involuntary roar and Timon took the advantage to yank the lion's tongue before jumping out of his mouth and onto the back of his rescuer.

"Ewwwwww…you tried to eat me!" he said as he brushed himself off, not realizing what he was really saying. "Wait a minute! _You…_tried…to …_eat_…ME!" he yelled at Kovu. "C'mon, Pumbaa! We're leaving! We don't need this!"

Quickly, Kiara ran over to them. "Wait! We can still work this out." She said, not wanting her two best friends since cubhood to just leave. "Kovu didn't mean to do that, Timon. He was just getting frustrated because he can't figure out where daddy sent you guys. We know something is up, but it's difficult for us to not know what it is. Please don't leave us, Timon. Please!" she finished smiling as her father had many years ago when he and a certain someone had wanted to take a trip to the _waterhole. _

As if on cue, Kovu started apologizing up a storm to the little guy who was still debating whether or not he should leave the Pride Lands for good. He and Pumbaa started to talk in hushed voices as the two lions stared on with hopeful wishes. Ultimately, they decided to stay of course, but they demanded a few things, one of which was that the incredibly large lions remain out of their business with the king. Immediately Kiara and Kovu agreed to the troublesome two's demands and then the four of them started out towards Pride Rock once again in song.

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Nala pawed her way around the cave with Vitani. If Simba could plot, then why couldn't they. Even though they didn't leave the cave the entire time, they knew that Simba had gone walking through the lands. It wasn't like him to stay put, and for once, Nala was glad. As the two lionesses looked around the cave, they wondered what had happened that could have the king in such a panic. They noticed that the pride had certainly grown since the death of Scar and Zira. The once light-furred lions that ruled the Pride Lands were steadily growing into dark and light furred lions. Over the two years that had passed, almost half the population had had mixed or dark fur. It had been like that in Mufasa and Sarabi's time. Mufasa had, in fact, been born of a mixed family as well. Obviously that was the case since he and Scar had been brothers. What had gone wrong was not exactly clear to anyone anymore. Nala had always meant to ask Sarabi, however, certain deaths had been unavoidable and the difficult life that she had led had been another factor aside from her already somewhat old age, therefore making it impossible for anyone to ask her.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Nala asked Vitani in order to keep her mind off of the knowledge that had been lost with the death of Sarabi.

"I really don't know, Nala. We can only hope for the best in any situation. Has Simba said anything about where Timon and Pumbaa were for the last two weeks?" she replied, eagerly as Nala was about finding out what was going on.

"No. It's not like him to be so secretive, either. I just don't know what's gotten into him. Plus the fact that my daughter and your brother have managed to disappear with the dynamic duo does not help matters. Simba sent them off for a relaxing day, but that was almost twelve hours ago. I don't know where any of them could be. I know Simba's out walking with Zazu, but that's it. What should I do, Vitani? I'm too old for this!"

"Don't worry, Nala. Everything is going to be okay. It's late, though. You should get some sleep. I'll go find the crew. You just go to sleep. And don't worry. Everything will be okay." Vitani said as Nala walked off. It was only after the aging lioness left that Vitani continued her now vicious statement as she went to look for everyone. "At least I _hope_ it will, but I doubt it."

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A/N: Thank you everyone, so much for your reviews! Hope you're liking it so far! I want to update soon, but I'm loaded down with work right now, so I don't know if that'll be possible. Anyways, R&R. Thanks-Lauren


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Once again, I painstakingly must admit that I, unfortunately-although as much as I'd like to, can not take credit for the invention of any of The Lion King. It, with the exception of this story (but not the characters or setting), was created by and has rights held by Disney.

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A/N: First of all I would like to say kudos to the only reviewer who picked up on the last line of chapter 3. I won't say who it was though, as to further the suspense…you guys will just have to find out later on what is happening. I would also like to say thank you for all the encouraging feedback from all my faithful reviewers…you have no idea how much it truly means to me. I have been asked to make the chapters a bit longer by several people and so, I have decided that that would be in the best interest for my story. These longer chapters, however, have come at the price that it might take me a little longer than usual to update. My apologies. This chapter would have been out a lot sooner, but I went to Florida for a week to see my brother-it was very relaxing down there- and then I went spelunking with a couple of friends of mine- if you ever get the chance to go, by all means, you should-it was so much fun, and of course I had to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, because, well-who didn't? Anyways, I'm sure you are all bored to death with my life story, so without further interruption…

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The Lion King III  
Chapter 4

Darkness and rain had swallowed the Pride Lands just as Simba and Zazu had made it inside the cave. Kiara, Kovu, Timon, and Pumbaa were right behind them, running at full speed. This storm was going to be a big one. Kiara, who had hated any storm since Zira had died, went over to her mother and curled up in a ball to drift off into a deep sleep. Kovu was about to follow the princess, however he was cut off by a rather hostile Simba growling at him. Instead he went over to where his sister was nestled and tried to sleep, but he just could not ignore the voices in his head that kept telling him that Simba hated him for no apparent reason. It was not only Kovu who had realized this, though. Nala, who had been resting, got up after she had heard her husband growling at Kovu. She walked over to him while Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu and silently signaled for the others to disappear.

"Simba, what's gotten into you? I thought you liked Kovu." she said curiously.

"He can't be trusted. Not now, he can't. We have to be careful, now; very careful." Simba replied as quietly as he could while looking around to see if any lions had been eavesdropping. "We need to talk, Nala; away from prying ears. Come on."

"Simba! It's pouring out! We'll get soaked!"

"I'm willing to take that chance."

"Okay." She said still confused and unsure as they walked out of the cave and down Pride Rock. Once they were a considerable distance from the cave and Nala was almost certain that there was no one else around, she questioned Simba again. She was not in the mood to keep to herself anymore. It was part of her nature to pry and even though she had given him his space for a while, she was sick of it now. It was time for him to confess what had been going on. "What's going on Simba? I have the right to know."

"You do, and that's what I want to tell you. It's not that simple, Nala. Do you remember when we were fighting with the Outsiders for control? We thought that Scar would take over for good?"

"Simba, what are you getting at? Scar is dead. He's been dead for a long time now and nothing anyone says can bring him back. What's going on Simba? Where did you send Timon and Pumbaa before? Why have you been so secretive, lately? This isn't like you, Simba?"

"Here's the thing. Scar isn't dead. He was escorted away by Shenzi and Banzai through the caves. He's in hiding, Nala. Timon and Pumbaa went off to find him and they were successful. He's back, Nala, and he wants to kill us. He's after us; all of us."

"What? How did you find any of this out? Who does he want to kill? And why don't you feel as if you can trust Kovu? What has he done?"

"A few weeks ago there were hyenas in the elephant graveyard. I had been with Timon and Pumbaa-they were showing me one of there spots for grub when we heard voices. We were hiding and we heard three of those awful creatures. I recognized one as a close friend of Shenzi. She was saying how Scar was laughing right now at the Pride Landers and his nephew because he was still alive and well, just biding his time."

"Okay…well, um, hmm…Scar is back, okay, but that still doesn't explain why we can't trust Kovu. Simba," she said looking directly into his eyes "we _can _trust Kovu. You know that don't you?"

"He was supposed to be their king. He was supposed to lead the Outsiders to freedom. How do we kno-"

"SIMBA!" Nala said cutting him off. "He _will_ be their king. He _did_ lead the Outsiders to freedom by bringing them here! And it wasn't by any means of Scar helping him! There is no doubt that he is on our side. I don't understand why you can't just trust that and have it be enough. He has _never_ betrayed us. He saved our daughter's life, even though he knew who she was! If you can't trust Kovu then you can't trust any of the lions living here who were once banished to the Outlands. Don't you see it, Simba? We are all connected. We are one, Simba."

"He was Scar's chosen one."

"Why are you doing this? You know, the great kings of the past are probably watching over you right now and they're probably saying how could we do this. How could we put this lion that has run away from everything rule? You know what Simba? Kovu is a trustworthy lion and if you can't trust him, then you can't trust me."

"Nala!" he said as she started to walk back to Pride Rock without him. "Nala, it's not like that. You know that I trust you. Nala, I love you." He said running after her. He couldn't believe that she had just said that.

Spinning around the lioness gave her husband a hug. "I know you do, honey, but we can't live like this. This was how Zira and her pride lived. Never trusting one another, talking behind someone's back! It's not you, Simba, and it's certainly not what your father wanted for you. _I_ can't live like that, Simba. We can trust Kovu, and you're going to have to live with the fact that if you make the mistake of throwing him out because you don't trust him, your daughter will hate you along with most of the pride and you will have made a very big _mistake_. And with that being said, I am going to go dry off now, and if you had any sense left in that _kingly_ brain of yours you would do well to do likewise!"

Slowly Nala walked back to Pride Rock, deliberately waiting for Simba to catch up, but when she looked back he was still standing in the same place, looking up to the skies. She thought about yelling over to him to follow, but then she had second thoughts. Maybe he needed to have a little meeting with the great kings of the past in order to clear that confused brain of his. Maybe they would straighten him out. Maybe, just maybe.

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okay, so I know it took a while to update, but hopefully it was worth the wait. Please review!  
Lauren


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